Civil War Sesquicentennial – Battles

On September 17, 1862, one of the bloodiest battles in American history took place near the small town of Sharpsburg, Maryland. The Battle of Antietam lasted only one day, but resulted in over 23,000 deaths. The victory, claimed by the Union forces, encouraged President Lincoln to issue his Emancipation Proclamation on September 22.

Antietam, unfortunately, was only one bloody battle in a war of many. Tuesday night, PBS broadcast a look at the toll of death on the young United States; the documentary, Death and the Civil War, is based on the book by Drew Gilpin Faust (This Republic of Suffering). Because the war was fought entirely by Americans, and because military technology far exceeded the medical advances of the time, the amount of deaths that occurred during many battles of the Civil War were beyond almost all comprehension. Learn more about the individual land battles through one of these books: